Product Description

As a boy growing up in Montana, he was Samson Hunts Alone - until a deadly misunderstanding with the law forced him to flee the Crow reservation at age fifteen. Today he is Samuel Hunter, a successful Santa Barbara insurance salesman with a Mercedes, a condo, and a hollow, invented life. Then one day, shortly after his thirty-fifth birthday, destiny offers him the dangerous gift of love - in the exquisite form of Calliope Kincaid - and a curse in the unheralded appearance of an ancient Indian god by the name of Coyote. Coyote, the trickster, has arrived to transform tranquillity into chaos, to reawaken the mystical storyteller within Sam ...and to seriously screw up his existence in the process.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #364643 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

About the Author
Christopher Moore began writing at the age six and became the oldest known child prodigy when, in his early thirties, he published his first novel. Chris enjoys cheese crackers, acid jazz, and otter scrubbing and lives in an inaccessible island fortress in the Pacific.

Customer Reviews

Moore enthusiasts will enjoy this early novel.
If you are already a fan and need a Moore "fix," this novel will keep you thoroughly occupied with its wacky charm, its light-hearted approach to cosmic issues, and its skewed, but respectful, treatment of Native American life and traditions. Coming after Practical Demonkeeping, his debut novel, it has many of the elements for which Moore has become so (justly) popular with his later novels, though its plot and characters are not as fully developed, and the book is not as outrageous or crazily funny as those.

Sam Hunter, the main character, is a 35-year-old California insurance salesman, a Crow Indian whose real name is Sam Hunts Alone. Having attacked a policeman as a teen, Sam became a fugitive from the Crow Agency, and now, twenty years later, leads a totally predictable, boring life--that is, until Old Man Coyote (the trickster), Sam's spiritual helper, arrives, bringing "chaos--the new order in his life."

A beautiful woman, her biker-druggie-ex-lover, and an assortment of wackos, stir up the action, as Sam tries to figure out who he really is and, with Coyote's "help," learn what he is capable of. Lots of wild action and some potentially hilarious scenes are reined in, a bit, by Moore's focus on Sam's Indian traditions and why they are, or should be, important to him, a subject serious enough to curtail the uninhibited flights of craziness that we now expect from Moore. This is fun, but it's a somewhat more thoughtful novel, overall, than the outrageous, campy stories for which Moore is now famous. Mary Whipple

Off the wall
I'd never read any of Cristopher Moore's books before and after Coyote Blue I'm looking forwards to others. The closest reference I can use is the work of Carl Hiaasen. The story should be straight-forward, a simple tale of a shallow man finding love, which reveals how empty his life is. Although it's not entirely clear where the story is going to take you, stay for the ride. You'll encounter Las Vegas from a new perspective, a psychopathic gang of bikers, sly salesmen and the god Coyote, the Trickster. It's Hiassen on a supernatural trip - clever, funny and disturbingly accurate. A good yarn, which doesn't overstay it's welcome. Recommended.

From a new Christopher Moore fan
Amazon profiled me and recommended this book. I never heard of Christopher Moore, and now I'm a fan. How did they know? This read had an artful combination of culture and allegory and lunacy that is reminiscent of the best of Tom Robbins. It was hysterically funny and touching and profound. Read it!